Drones Research Papers

World War One caused the production of aircraft. It also saw the development of the first unmanned aircraft. Charles Kettering was an American inventor, he designed an unmanned aircraft known as The Kettering Torpedo or "The Kettering Bug". It could destroy an enemy miles away. It was the first drone of its time, using an onboard gyroscope that guided the drone to its location. The first test flight for the drone was on October 2nd 1918. The test failed because the drone flew too steep in the air, it stalled and eventually crashed. In 1916-1917 Elmer Sperry and Peter Hewitt developed an unmanned aircraft, known as the Hewitt-Sperry Automatic Aircraft. It was also piloted by gyroscopes and also with a barometer that could measure the altitude. The first

test flight was on March 6th 1918.

Charles Kettering was born on August 29th 1876, he was an inventor, engineer, business man, and he held 186 patents. He was the founder of Delco and he was at the head of research at General Motors from 1920-1947. His most widely used developments were the electrical starting motor and leaded gasoline. He also invented the all-electric starting ignition and lighting for automobiles. But in 1918, Kettering designed the Aerial Torpedo", which of course was named the "Kettering Bug". The 300lb missile had 12ft cardboard wings and a 40hp enjigine. It could carry explosives at 50mph. The bug was considered the first missile, it lead to the development of the guided missile and radio-control drone.

When World War 2 started, the drone was developed enough for operators to use joysticks that could steer the drones from a distance away. The operators used a transmitter to send signals to the radio receiver on the drone. Germany learnt of this and they began focusing on developing missiles instead of tanks, weapons and any other invention of that time. Other countries followed later on. These German built missiles were much more precise and very difficult to shoot down.

Everrett says "The missile kind of replaced the whole idea of an assault drone". The US then halted their research and deemed that information "classified". The word "Drone" came from navy admirals when they visited Britain and saw one of the remote controlled aircrafts called Queen Bee. One of the most famous drones used in World War 2 was the German V-1 buzz-bomb, just like the Kettering Bug and other drones, it was launched from a rail-launcher and of course, were guided by gyroscopes. It was launched at 400 miles per hour, carrying a one tonne warhead. The British soon found a way of destroying the V-1s, by using their own planes to tip the drone upside down so then it would crash. The Nazis then investigated more advanced ways of weaponry such as, drone motherships, missiles and bombs that used infrared and television sensors to fly. The Allies also invented drones of a similar nature to that of the Nazi's. But they found it difficult to take the drone off the ground and arm the warhead at the same time, so pilots flew the drone themselves until they hit 10,000ft before jumping out. With this kind of technology, most missions ended in failure due to losing control of the drone or pilots dying accidentally. By 1944, the allies scrapped the drone project, but not before one of the drones killed Joseph Kennedy Jr, John F Kennedy’s older brother. Although, the Navy had better luck with drones, even though they came too late to do anything significant to affect the war’s outcome.